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Finally had my first flight with my new Rev 1.5 SLE (w/fat leading edge) that I bought from this site. (Thanks oyehut1955!) My background is with dual line kites and r/c gliders. I read the Rev Book and watched all the free videos so was prepared as I was gonna be.

What an incredibly fun experience! Winds were ~17/mph which seems about perfect for this setup. The coolest thing by far is the pitch control which seemed to me like strapping on a motor! It never stopped feeling strange being able to speed up and slow down the kite in flight. Strange but in a very good way.

Started off flying back and fourth like a dual line- as the rev book suggests- just getting used to pulling back on the bottom handles to turn instead of pulling and pushing a whole side like a dual line. That and feeling in awe of the pitch control. I would forget I was controlling the pitch and get confused why it was accelerating or slowing down and then it would click again- usually accompanied by a huge smile. It kept surprising me somehow.

After getting somewhat comfortable with 'normal' flight I tried doing some hovering, mostly unsuccessful. I definitely have a new appreciation of the skills involved from the videos online. You guys are really talented!

Then practiced trying to fly backwards for quite a while. It's a lot more temperamental than I imagined. If you don't keep the lines perfectly even, the kite tries to spin, especially with speed. Sometimes is even seemed to buck, haha. This will take a lot of practice to master.

Finally, spent the last part of the day being enamored like a little kid with a shiny object at dive stopping. So fun! I would dive down on the left side, stop and turn towards the right, then fly up in one motion and do it again on the other side. Never got tired of doing this over and over again just trying to get smoother. Fabulous!

I love a good challenge and this will keep me entertained for years. So I guess this is a warm Hello to all the dark siders. You sucked in another one.

flyinhigh ~ I'm just guessing here... and if I was a betting person I'd do that too...

Your kite will have a few new friends (in your kite bag) within a year!

WE GOTCHA!

Thanks! You would have won the bet already since I just ordered a set of race rods. That's like a second kite right?

Am also fascinated by the speed series and was seriously considering one as my first quad. That would have been a huge mistake! Definitely see one in my future though. Flying quads is much more challenging than I thought it would be. You guys posting the videos make it look soooo easy!

flyinhigh ~ I'm just guessing here... and if I was a betting person I'd do that too...Your kite will have a few new friends (in your kite bag) within a year!WE GOTCHA!

Thanks! You would have won the bet already since I just ordered a set of race rods. That's like a second kite right?Am also fascinated by the speed series and was seriously considering one as my first quad. That would have been a huge mistake! Definitely see one in my future though. Flying quads is much more challenging than I thought it would be. You guys posting the videos make it look soooo easy!

You'll LUV the race rods! ...and the added control you'll experience!

Personally I'd hold off on the speed series, you may want to consider adding a 1.5 mid-vent first! (Just my humble opinion!)

The race rods arrived today... yeah! The wind though was unfortunately non-existent just like every day since flying last weekend. Am usually pretty patient but since the kite is new am going a little stir crazy.

Soooo... took it out anyway just to see what they're like and I must say, very impressive! The kite is so light now and even flexes a bit, it feels like a completely different kite. Tried walking it backwards but am not good enough to keep it airborne after starting a turn. Still it's 10x better than the fat leading edge in these conditions.

Can't wait for some actual wind except I can since the forecast says more of the same all next week. sigh... am kicking myself for not getting into these when I lived on the beach in SoCal. Years ago in a drama class I met a weird girl who claimed to be a witch and could control the wind... wish I could get a hold of her now! haha.

And Yes Jynx, it'll be quite a while before I'm ready for a speed series. To all you guys in SoCal: Enjoy all that smooth plentiful wind!!

Welcome to the quad world. Watch out . . . it's addictive! My second rev is a Shockwave - and I have to say it was quite a while before I could fly it. The dual line habits that you can recover from with a 1.5 will make a speed series fall out of the air, because the handle-pull induced slides will happen so fast that the kite will be stalled out of the window before you realize what happened. My two cents - get good with the 1.5 for a few more weeks before you try a speed series. You'll learn the more precise control required by the speed series by getting good on the standard. Then, I'd see if someone will let you fly theirs at a festival so you can try it out. If you're ever at a festival in the Chicago area, I'd be happy to let you try mine (because it's pretty likely I'll be flying a "regular" 1.5 instead of my speed series )

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